This invention relates generally to the scheduling and formation of meetings, and more particularly, to methods and systems for automatically scheduling and forming a virtual meeting between meeting attendees using a computer network.
The growing complexity of the business environment has resulted in many business projects being assigned to workgroups rather than being produced by a single employee. The evolution of electronic data communications has removed the requirement that workgroups be limited to personnel that are physically proximate and has allowed workgroup membership to be based on the members"" skills instead of their physical location. For instance, members of the workgroups may now be physically distributed between different cubicles or offices on the same floor, different floors in an office building, different office buildings on a corporate campus or different campuses located in the same or different regions of the country. Workgroups may also include workgroup members that travel or telecommute.
Business reports, financial spreadsheets and design schematics are examples of projects that may be created by a collaborative effort of a workgroup. These projects are increasingly being produced using application programs operating on a personal computer that edit a data file. The data file will be referred to below as an electronic document.
In the past, the collaborative editing of a document by workgroup members has been accomplished by printing a paper copy of the document and distributing the printed paper copy to each member of the workgroup for revision. One way to collaboratively edit the paper copy of the document has been to distribute a single paper copy sequentially from workgroup member to workgroup member so that the changes made by one workgroup member is incorporated into the document before subsequent changes are made. An alternative has been distribute a paper copy to each member of the work group so that each member independently makes changes to the document that later are consolidated into a single, final, document.
Connecting personal computers to communication networks has relieved the workgroup members from forwarding paper copies, but in many cases the collaboration process remains the same. Instead of forwarding a paper copy sequentially from workgroup member to workgroup member, an electronic document is forwarded as an electronic data file from workgroup member to workgroup member over a computer network, with each workgroup member editing the electronic document as it stands revised by a previous workgroup member and then sending it on to the next workgroup member. Alternatively, like the distribution of a paper copies to each workgroup member, a separate copy of the electronic document might be distributed electronically over a computer network as an electronic data file to all workgroup members simultaneously. The workgroup members revise their own copy of the electronic document and return it to a central workgroup member that is responsible for incorporating the various changes into a final document. To assist in these revision scenarios, some application programs provide tools for tracking changes made by various members of the workgroup. Examples revision tracking tools can be found in Microsoft Word 97, manufactured by Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash.
Instead of requiring each member of the work group to individually edit a document , it is desirable to allow for the collaborative editing of an electronic document in real-time by the workgroup members. This can be accomplished by networking the computers of the workgroup members together to create a virtual meeting. In a virtual meeting, the computer systems of the members of a workgroup (or other attendees) are linked together electronically through a computer network with the ability to share a computer application to edit an electronic document.
While possible, in the past, sharing electronic documents for collaborative editing in a virtual meeting is a cumbersome manual process. Usually, a virtual meeting is organized on an xe2x80x9cad hocxe2x80x9d basis when a meeting host telephones one or more meeting participants and requests that they immediately join a virtual meeting. To enable the sharing of an electronic document, the meeting host must first start the document editing application and open the subject electronic document in that application. The meeting host then has to start the virtual meeting software and manually enable document sharing. The meeting participants have to manually start an instance of the virtual meeting on their computer, search for the meeting host on a directory server specified by the meeting host, and then manually instruct the virtual meeting software to join the virtual meeting using the meeting host""s network address obtained from the directory server. When the meeting host again opens the document editing application, the meeting attendees are able to collaboratively edit the subject document in real-time.
While it is possible to schedule a virtual meeting manually using an appointment calendar of some type, most the time this is not a practical option. Scheduling a virtual meeting using a manual appointment calendar does not relieve the meeting host and the meeting participants from taking the manual steps described above to locate and join the meeting. For instance, the meeting host may send a meeting request to a group of meeting participants and the meeting request could be entered as an appointment that could signal reminders at the time of the meeting. However, this does not relieve the meeting host and the meeting attendees from the manual steps described above in order to establish the virtual meeting. Because the virtual meeting utility application has to be running on each of the meeting attendee""s computers before the virtual meeting connection can be established over a communications network, at the time the virtual meeting is scheduled for, the meeting host has the option of telephoning the meeting participant""s to remind each of them to start the virtual meeting application on their computer, or the meeting host may rely on the meeting applicant remembering, or being reminded by a personal information manager operating on their computer, that the virtual meeting is about to take place. The meeting host must also rely on the meeting attendees being able to manually join the virtual meeting by: starting the virtual meeting application, finding the network address of the meeting host and properly joining the meeting.
It would be desirable to provide a method and system for scheduling a virtual meeting between a meeting host and a meeting participant. It would also be desirable that the method and system automate the process of connecting the meeting host""s computer and each meeting participant""s computer together in a virtual meeting over a communication network at the scheduled time of the virtual meeting. A mechanism to automatically load an electronic document into its associated document editing application and to automatically make that electronic document available in the virtual meeting for collaborative editing by the meeting attendees would also be desirable. The present invention is directed to providing a method and system having one or more of these desirable attributes.
In accordance with the invention, a computer-implemented method and system for scheduling a virtual meeting between a meeting host and at least one meeting participant is provided. The virtual meeting is hosted on a meeting host""s computer having a host virtual meeting utility and a host personal information manager application. A scheduled meeting request that includes the date and time of the meeting and the email address of the meeting host is sent over a communication network to at least one meeting participant""s computer. Each meeting participant""s computer also has a meeting participant virtual meeting utility and a meeting participant personal information manager application. The meeting participant""s personal information manager application receives the scheduled meeting request, which the personal information manager stores until the date and time of the virtual meeting. At the time of the meeting on the scheduled date, the host personal information manager program invokes the host virtual meeting utility a predetermined time before the time and date of the virtual meeting as specified in the scheduled meeting request. The meeting participant""s personal information manager application also invokes the meeting participant virtual meeting utility a predetermined time before the time and date of the virtual meeting that is specified in the scheduled meeting request. The predetermined time may be the same or different.
In accordance with another aspect of this invention, the virtual meeting utility is automatically instructed to host a virtual meeting at a scheduled date and time specified in a meeting request. The meeting participant""s computers are automatically joined to the virtual meeting by obtaining a reference to a network address of the meeting host""s computer based on the a meeting host""s email address that is included as part of the meeting request that scheduled the meeting. The meeting host""s email address is registered on a directory server together with an associated network address of the meeting host""s computer. The meeting host""s email address is read from the stored meeting request by the meeting participant""s computer and the email address is sent to the directory server, which returns the network address of the meeting host""s computer. The network address of the meeting host""s computer is provided to the virtual meeting utility. Using email addresses to lookup network addresses is not required by the invention. Any unique identifier may be used as a key for looking up an associated network address using a directory server. It is also possible to specify the actual network address of the meeting host in the meeting request. Where a direct reference to the meeting participant""s computer is provided, a directory server to lookup a meeting host""s network addresses is not required. The virtual meeting utility uses the network address to create the connection between the meeting participant""s computer and the meeting host""s computer.
In accordance with still further aspects of this invention, an electronic document is specified in the meeting request as a meeting topic for the virtual meeting. At or near the time of the virtual meeting, the path and document name of the electronic document is read from a meeting request stored by a host""s personal information manager. Using this path and document name, the electronic document is automatically opened in a document editing application that is associated with the electronic document on the meeting host""s computer. If enabled by the meeting host in the virtual meeting, the electronic document may be collaboratively edited by the meeting host and each meeting participant in real time. Each meeting participant""s computer receives a virtual image of the document editing application and the electronic document as they appear on the meeting host""s computer. The meeting participants may edit the electronic document (including using the functions of the electronic document editing application) just as the meeting host is able to do on the meeting host""s computer, all in real time. In addition to the collaborative editing of the document, the meeting host and the meeting participants may also communicate during the virtual meeting by audio, video or text messages.